Aram's heart was pounding in his chest as he tried to make sense of what was happening. He looked around at the other people who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and he could see the fear and confusion etched on their faces. Had they all heard that thunderous voice?
"What does that even mean?" Razil muttered beside him. The once charming smile on Razil's face had vanished, replaced with clenched teeth and eyes darting around in fear.
Aram couldn't help but feel the same fear. They were suddenly stranded in who knows where and then, god, or whatever that was, speaks to them? Was this just a dream? Was he still knocked out?
"Ouch!" Aram exclaimed after he pinched himself. "So I'm not dreaming, huh?"
Razil looked at Aram for a bit from the corner of his eyes and said, "I hope you are. But in case you are not, where do you think we are? It sure doesn't look familiar."
As he said that, he pointed somewhere into the distant sky. "I mean, I have never in my life heard of something like that."
Aram followed his finger, opening his eyes wide when he noticed what Razil was pointing at. How had he not seen that before?
There, in the distance, was a giant landmass, towering above the horizon. It was unlike anything Aram had ever seen before. The landmass was so massive that it seemed to stretch on endlessly, held up by seemingly nothing more than the clouds that lay beneath it.
It was so far away and still looked so enormous that Aram just couldn't believe his eyes. How could something like that even exist?
Aram squinted at it, trying to make out details, but couldn't because it was just too far away.
As Aram was pondering what he was looking at, a small pang of pain overcame him out of nowhere. He tried blaming the excruciating heat of the ruthless desert sun hitting his neck for the pain.
But the pain didn't dissipate; instead, it steadily got worse and worse. But the pain was weird. Aram couldn't really say what was hurting, just that it was. The pain went from the tips of his hair to the soles of his feet.
Aram glanced at Razil, grunting from all the pain he was feeling by now.
Razil didn't seem to be doing well either. His fearful look from before was completely gone, replaced by a grimace of pain.
And it wasn't just Razil. It seemed like everyone around him was feeling it too. The woman in the green dress was on her knees, holding her stomach while crying for help.
Even the monk looked like he was struggling with the pain.
Aram couldn't think straight anymore. He couldn't understand anything anymore, especially this weird, all-consuming pain. It was as if he was a balloon that was being filled up by this strange never-ending pain.
Aram couldn't help but start crying and writhing from the pain. The agony of it made him twist and turn and cramp all over his body.
He could hear the screams of pain from others in the distance. Or maybe it was just him. He couldn't tell anymore.
But would he just die like that?
He couldn't. Aram didn't want to die. Not yet.
He was still a virgin, after all. He still had his whole life ahead of him.
With a scream, Aram brought himself back to his senses, his whole being still screeching from pain.
But Aram didn't care. He would get through this, whatever it was.
Pain.
As he looked up, he locked eyes with Razil, who also seemed to have found some kind of resolve.
Pain.
But Aram didn't pay him much attention. Instead, he looked around, trying to find someone or something that could help him.
Pain.
Tears and snot were flowing out of him, making it hard for him to make anything out.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
He could hear the screams of agony in the crowd of people, their cries for help. Aram wanted to join them in their wails, to just disappear in the crowd, to forget this pain.
Pain. It was everywhere. It was consuming him whole.
But just before he was about to give in, he noticed something.
The monk.
The monk was completely calm in this hurricane of anguish.
Instinctively, he started crawling towards the monk, who was just a few meters away from him.
The sand was burning hot against his naked skin, but the pain inside him was greater. Much greater.
The pain wanted to keep him down, it wanted to keep him paralyzed.
But Aram kept crawling. He would survive this.
The pain wanted to swallow him, his consciousness.
But Aram fought, and he reached the monk in what felt like an eternity.
"Help me..." he managed to say, holding onto the knee of the monk.
Aram was about to lose consciousness when a strong hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him up.
He didn't have the strength to straighten up, so he just hung from his arm, barely managing to even look up at the monk.
"Sit." The monk commanded in a rather calm voice.
He used the arm he was grabbing to guide Aram to a sitting position.
"Now close your eyes and breathe. Try to feel that which is not yours. Feel it, find it, and then conquer it."
Aram had no idea what this meant, but he didn't have the energy to say anything. So he just did what he was told.
As soon as he closed his eyes, he was back in the abyss of pain, an endless darkness filled with nothing but pain. How was he supposed to feel anything other than this?
"Breathe in," the monk said, bringing Aram back to reality. "And out... In... and out..."
The monk's guidance helped Aram not to lose himself in the vast ocean of pain that was consuming him right now.
'Feel that which is not yours, does he mean the pain?' Aram thought, 'I am already feeling it, and I know where it is. It's everywhere!'
Even though Aram feared the pain that was consuming him, he wanted to listen to the monk and at least try.
And as he did, after what felt like an eternity, he slowly noticed that the pain was definitely not his. He could actually feel it now. And he could slowly feel its pulse, beating the same rhythm as his heartbeat.
Even though the pain did not dissipate, Aram visually calmed down a bit with the realization.
"Now conquer it. Take it away from your whole body and press it into one spot."
Somehow Aram understood this assignment immediately, almost instinctually.
He imagined all the pain as countless strands throughout his body and started pulling them towards one spot, to the middle of his being, his heart.
And as he did he slowly but surely felt the pain in his limbs receding. The more he pulled the less he felt the pain in the limbs and the more of it he felt in his heart.
It felt like it was going to explode any second. But Aram didn't care anymore. He wanted to be done with this, so he pulled more and more until the Pain was nowhere other than in his heart.
'one spot, press it to one spot,' Aram remembered the words of the monk.
His heart was burning like a lava core inside him. Threatening to kill him. But he imagined it in his hands pressing it down. Pressing with all his might.
He felt how the countless threats he had pressed into his heart were slowly getting more and more compressed.
Suddenly, there was no more pain.
It was gone, completely gone.
He was free of it!
Aram started laughing, and then crying out of happiness.
But as he came back to reality he started hearing the screams of all the people around him again.
He was out of it, but everyone else was still being tortured by whatever that had been.
As Aram looked up, he noticed that the monk no longer was next to him. He had gone to the woman in green, who was also sitting in the position the monk had shown him before.
The monk had saved him and was now helping others.
Should he too?
Aram looked around, seeing all these different people in pain. People he didn't know, but still felt a kinship with. They were going through the same thing he had been.
Some were screaming their lungs out, others were writhing in quiet agony. And some others were completely still, but not calm like the monk had been.
These people were dead.
Aram felt remorse when he saw them.
'that could have been me.. if the Monk hadn't helped me. I will also help others,' He decided.
With that he turned around and looked at Razil, who was one of the people that were screaming and crying in agony.
'I will help.' he decided